Another Way of Healing
by iflip4dolphins
Summary: The aftermath of a fight leaves Rosa Silenced, Rydia injured, and Edge the only one who can fix her up. Edge/Rydia


_Disclaimer: If I owned Final Fantasy, would I be sitting here writing fanfiction about it?_

_A/N: I don't know how I feel about this. The idea has been floating around in my head for a while, so I'm not worried about that. I just really, really hope that I did the characters justice. So. Without further ado, here is fluff and character development (sort of) and world development (even MORE sort of) for you! But mostly fluff~_

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The worst part about fighting, Rydia thought angrily as she tried to haul herself back up to her feet, wasn't the injuries. Or at least, it wasn't the injuries alone. Injuries by themselves were fine – those she could handle. What she couldn't handle was when the injuries were too much and she became a liability instead of an asset. As she gingerly put her foot to the ground her ankle screamed in pain and she gasped as it gave out from underneath her.

"Careful there." A pair of arms caught her before she hit the ground.

"Edge," she said tiredly. "Is everyone okay?"

"No," was his matter-of-fact reply as he set her down on the ground, careful not to jostle her. He knelt next to her and gently touched her arm; she hissed in pain as his fingers ran over her shoulder.

"What do you mean, 'no'?" she demanded, trying to struggle back to her feet. Edge put his hand on her good shoulder and pressed downwards, preventing her from moving.

"Rosa's been Silenced," he elaborated, "and you're a wreck. The rest of us only have minor wounds." There was a moment of silence before a smile flashed across his face. "Greedy girl. You think you can have all the fun?"

She didn't dignify that with a response – or at least, not a verbal one. The glare she shot him could have pierced solid steel, and yet, Edge simply raised a silver eyebrow at her until she looked away. "Silenced," she repeated quietly, eyes on her treacherous right ankle. "That's a problem."

"Not necessarily. There's a warding place close by. The others have already gone down there." Edge told her, giving her arm an odd look. "Did you know you've dislocated your shoulder?"

She shook her head.

"Hold still," he directed, holding her arms with one hand and moving his other to the back of her shoulder blade. "This is going to hurt."

He wasn't kidding. Rydia clenched her jaw together as he suddenly wrenched her arm backwards, tears streaming from her eyes as bone scraped against bone until her shoulder and arm were firmly joined once again. Though the entire procedure had only taken a few seconds, the fire around her shoulder felt like it had been burning for years at least. Vaguely aware of Edge's eyes on her face, Rydia shut her eyes and bent over, breathing deeply in an attempt to control herself.

"Sorry about that," Edge murmured in her ear. She just shook her head. There was a moment of silence before he continued with, "I'm pretty sure your arm's broken."

Rydia groaned. "And how would you know that?" she wanted to know, finally lifting her head to look at the handsome – much as she hated to admit it – ninja. Edge's shoulders rose and fell in a shrug, but he was smiling beneath his mask.

"For one thing, forearms aren't supposed to bend like that," he pointed out logically. For the first time, Rydia look down at her arm and grimaced. What was normally a straight, study line had been snapped and twisted, giving her a new elbow. "For another – well, Eblan doesn't have white mages. How do you think we heal our injured?"

"You don't?"

"Nope. Not a one." Edge paused, likely intending for dramatic effect, but succeeding only in irking her. She narrowed her eyes at him, threatening horrible, horrible things towards him if he didn't continue. For once he took the hint. "You know our magic is different," he continued, feeling her forearm with roughened fingers and sending both shivers up her spine and jolts of pain through her arm. His voice was soothing, lulling her into a false sense of security, sending the pain into the back of her mind as she focused on his words. "Ergo, no healing magic. All of our fighters learn how to treat wounds without the use of magic. Ask Cecil and Kain – they've got some of the same training I've got. It'd really suck if they were out injured on the battlefield without a white mage on hand."

Rydia furrowed her brows, rearranging her features into a frown. "Then why aren't either of them out here with me now?" she asked.

"Because I'm the best," Edge said simply, for once no arrogance in his tone. She shot him a look; he shot it right back. "I'm serious! They've got the basics. _Only_ the basics," he added swiftly as she opened her mouth to protest. "They can patch up cuts and splint limbs."

"And what can you do that's so much better than everyone else?"

"Antidotes," was his prompt response.

She stared. "What relevance does that have to this situation?" Rydia demanded.

Predictably, her demand went ignored. "Did you know antidotes and potions are made by advanced white mages?" Edge continued conversationally, leaning in towards her as though he were sharing a great secret. To her surprise, Rydia found herself leaning towards him, and instantly jerked herself back. "Ethers too. I think they're Mysidia's leading export. Anyway, for a place like Eblan that doesn't really have many ties to other places, we've had to make due with good old-fashioned, un-magical antidotes."

As he was speaking, Edge casually gripped her forearm and pulled it back into place. It was a slow, painstaking process, and Rydia found herself gritting her teeth and biting her lip to keep from crying out, her attention on Edge's words rather than the fire that was her arm. "They're really not that hard to make," he went on mildly. "Once you know how to make one, the rest are easy, provided you've got the right materials."

"Liar," Rydia gasped out.

He smiled at her. "I, lie? Never." With a final pull, her arm was correct once again, and Edge unsheathed one of his katanas to place the empty sheath against her arm. He measured it against her arm, then got up. "I hate to leave a pretty damsel in distress, but you'll need a stick the right length for that splint, or it won't work."

She just nodded. Taking that as affirmation, Edge vanished before her eyes in the 'shadow-stepping' technique she'd only seen him use once before. Left alone, Rydia was suddenly very aware of the sorry condition she was in – and not just pain, but soreness and cleanliness as well. Her green hair fell in limp, knotted snarls across her face and her face felt grimy. Her hands definitely were. The pain of her injuries felt more like a burning ache than pangs, but they had definitely still come back in full force. She found herself wishing that Edge would come back, if only so that their traditional banter would banish the pain again.

As if her wish had summoned him, Edge was back, this time with his katana sheathed and a straight stick in his hands the exact length of her forearm. "Don't ever call me a damsel again," she warned, though relief leaked out in her tone. He just aimed a grin at her before glancing down at her sash.

"You using that for anything important?" he asked casually, eyes serious.

Rydia raised one shoulder in a half-shrug. "That entirely depends on what sort of perverted nonsense you're planning."

"So suspicious," he chided. "I can't splint you without cloth, so unless that's vital to your being decent…"

With a sigh, Rydia started to unwind the yellow sash from her waist, a bit hampered by the fact that she only had the use of one hand. Edge stayed tactfully away from her waist, a fact that she simultaneously appreciated and was inexplicably annoyed by. Finally she managed to extricate herself from the fabric and handed the length of cloth over to the ninja. Fascinated, she watched as he deftly folded the strip in half and looped it around her arm and the stick, tightening it so that she couldn't move her arm even if she wanted to. With gentle fingers and absolute precision, he circled the fabric around her shoulder and waist, tying it off in a loose knot that would easily come undone with the right tug. His fingers ghosted across her clothes – she could feel it through her skin and it made her shiver. "You're actually pretty good at this," she realized.

"I know," was his smug reply. Before Rydia could do much more than level a look at him, Edge had directed his attention towards her legs. "Right ankle," she heard him mutter. He drew in a deep breath before he was carefully working her boot off of her foot.

"Hey!" To her mortification, Rydia could feel the heat climbing up onto her cheeks as his fingers tickled her leg.

"Sorry, I was under the impression that you wanted to sleep tonight," Edge said, carefully not looking at her face. Her boot slid off of her foot and he winced in sympathy at the sight of her swollen ankle. Rydia stared at it in disgusted awe. Edge clicked his tongue disapprovingly, mimicking Rosa when she had the chance to look at an injury left untended too long. "Oh, yeah. That's definitely going to have to be wrapped."

He hesitated for a moment before he pulled off his mask. As the ninja wrapped the fabric around her ankle, Rydia took the rare opportunity to take in Edge's regrettably handsome appearance. She could always see his storm-gray eyes and wild silver hair, of course, but the finely chiseled jaw line and nicely shaped mouth were a novelty that she rarely got to see.

As he finished she glanced down, admiring the way that the fabric had been wrapped; it wasn't too tight, but it definitely wasn't loose. "I would compliment you, but it'll just inflate your already overblown ego," she commented idly.

He ginned knowingly at her. "I'm going to want that back, you know."

"When my ankle looks like an ankle again we'll talk," she promised, pushing herself up with her good arm and gingerly testing her weight on her newly bandaged foot. To her delight, she could actually put some weight on it, but as soon as she tried to take a step it gave out from underneath her. Edge managed to catch her before she'd fallen too far and gave her a stern look.

A sigh escaped her lips. "I'm not going to be able to walk, am I?"

"Nope."

Annoyed by his flippancy, Rydia swatted his arm as best she could. "How am I supposed to get to the wards, o ninja of ridiculousness?" she wanted to know.

To her surprise, Edge beamed at her. "I'm _so_ glad you asked!" he cried before swooping her up into his arms, carrying her by supporting her back with one arm, her legs hooked over his other arm. Heat spilled onto Rydia's cheeks.

"What are you _doing_?"

"Carrying you," was his reply. "What, did it look like I was doing something else?"

She glared up at him. "Put me down."

"There's no way I'm going to let you hobble back on that foot just to save your dignity," Edge retorted.

"I'm not worried about my dignity!"

"Then what is it?"

Rydia pressed her lips together and turned her head away, determined to focus on anything but the blush on her cheeks or the way her body pressed into his chest made her feel protected. After a moment, he sighed. "You want to know the real reason why I elected to stay behind while the others went on ahead?" he offered quietly. Soundlessly, Rydia nodded her reply. "I was worried about you," Edge admitted, "and I didn't want to leave your care to anybody else."

There was a slight pause while Rydia tried to digest this information. Her shock was interrupted by the afterthought, "Especially not Kain."

"Kain?" she asked.

"Well, Cecil was worried about Rosa," was the explanation she got.

"That makes sense."

She didn't get an answer to that. The rest of the walk was spent in comfortable silence. Before they'd gone too far, Rydia finally gave into temptation and relaxed her body so that she was leaning against Edge's chest instead of rigidly trying to stay as far away from it as possible. In fact, she got so comfortable that by the time they reached the wards and the cabin that the others had set up, she was half-asleep already. "Edge?" she mumbled sleepily as he brought her into the cabin and headed towards one of the empty beds.

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

He set her down on one of the beds and smiled at her. "Anytime." The smile widened and she just knew she was going to get a smart-alecky comment. "Besides, don't all beautiful ladies need a handsome knight?"

"You're no knight," Rydia told him, yawning before she could contradict him on the rest of his statement. His smile faded, but didn't vanish. Instead, it grew softer.

"Go to sleep, Rydia," he said softly, brushing her hair back from her face with his thumb.

"Don't tell me what to do," she complained even as her eyes slid shut. A soft chuckle came from her side.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he whispered.

The last thing she was aware of before she slipped into blissful sleep was the feel of a pair of lips pressing gently against her forehead.


End file.
